BTTT.. Has anybody else sent an email asking the Inquiry to investigate the Jehovah's Witnesses organisation?
defender of truth
JoinedPosts by defender of truth
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Could the Independent Inquiry in England and Wales expose jw.org's child abuse failures? And how can we help?
by defender of truth inwith all the talk about the org's policies and failures regarding child sexual abuse being publically exposed in australia, i thought that it may be a good time to highlight this... i apologise if this has already been discussed, but on the 9th of july the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in england and wales was opened.
here is some information regarding it's aims.. "about the inquiry.
the inquiry offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine the extent to which institutions and organisations in england and wales have taken seriously their responsibility to protect children.. the inquiry will investigate a wide range of institutions including:.
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Petition for U.S. AG investigation.
by freemindfade innot sure if anything will come of this.
but i signed it.. https://www.change.org/p/united-states-attorney-general-investigate-the-watchtower-society-of-jehovah-s-witnesses-re-child-sexual-abuse?recruiter=363165656&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink.
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defender of truth
Sorry about the formatting, but hopefully the last post was still readable.. I'll just highlight these points..
"Change.org petitions have no power in themselves, they are just a platform.
We the People petitions need 100,000 signatures to get an official response.
If you want help to put together a well-worded (as in legally well worded, for example I personally would leave out the "mentally diseased and apostate lies stuff", this is going to the government and they don't have a clue what you're talking about.)..
I'd recommend contacting AAWA and get a We the People petition arranged.
www.aawa.co/about-aawa/contact-us/
Or at least get advice from them on how to get a petition you write media attention.
www.change.org/en-GB/guides/get-the-story-to-media
Just trying to help,I'm not having a go here..
Best of luck with your good idea ;) -
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Petition for U.S. AG investigation.
by freemindfade innot sure if anything will come of this.
but i signed it.. https://www.change.org/p/united-states-attorney-general-investigate-the-watchtower-society-of-jehovah-s-witnesses-re-child-sexual-abuse?recruiter=363165656&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink.
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defender of truth
I don't know where Flipper heard this 1,000 signatures thing, but it is not accurate
".. it needs 383 more to make the 1,000 needed to get submitted I believe to get a commission looking into this in the U.S."
Change.org has no power to require anyone to look at it. That's We The People.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
Great idea by the way, this thing clearly has movement behind it..
But there are some things to be aware of. We the People site has a 100,000 target.
In order to receive a response, a petition must hit 100,000 signatures within 30 days — a number that was raised from 30,000 in January of 2013. Under the new 60-day deadline, the process "is going to look a little different," writes chief digital officer Jason Goldman. Based on the statement, that involves a new panel of people who will coordinate responses.
And in a somewhat bigger change, massive petition site Change.org is now integrating with We the People, which means that signatures collected there can count towards the 100,000 total.
www.theverge.com/2015/7/28/9060959/white-house-we-the-people-petition-change-org
To cross the first threshold and be searchable within WhiteHouse.gov, a petition must reach 150 signatures within 30 days.
To cross the second threshold and require a response, a petition must reach 100,000 signatures within 30 days.
Change.org petitions have no power in themselves, they are just a platform.
If you want help to put together a well-worded (as in legally well worded, for example I personally would leave out the "mentally diseased and apostate lies stuff", this is going to the government and they don't have a clue what you're talking about.)..
I'd recommend contacting AAWA and get a We the People petition arranged.
www.aawa.co/about-aawa/contact-us/
Or at least get advice from them on how to get a petition you write media attention.
www.change.org/en-GB/guides/get-the-story-to-media
Just trying to help, I'm not having a go here.. Best of luck with your good idea ;)
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"We don't run a spy network"
by OrphanCrow inthe wts has been keeping case files on child sex abuse for over 60 years that we know of.
*damn...my whole post disappeared.... .
the wts has been keeping case files on child sex abuse for over 60 years that we know of.
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defender of truth
"We don't run the network, it runs itself.." ;) -
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Something that's bugging me. Why didn't the ARC ask Jackson..
by defender of truth in..about child molesters being reappointed to positions of trust?
also, whether they would consider using 'worldly' expertise when assessing potential risk?.
why was spinks questioned as to whether the organisation should use professionals to assess whether a pedophile is fit to rejoin the jw community (or whether they are still a danger), let alone be reappointed.. and yet jackson, one of the policy makers in the org, was not even spoken to about pedophiles being judged as 'repentant' and even safe to be reappointed, by incompetent elders??.
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defender of truth
..about child molesters being reappointed to positions of trust? Also, whether they would consider using 'worldly' expertise when assessing potential risk?
Why was Spinks questioned as to whether the organisation should use professionals to assess whether a pedophile is fit to rejoin the JW community (or whether they are still a danger), let alone be reappointed.. And yet Jackson, one of the policy makers in the org, was not even spoken to about pedophiles being judged as 'repentant' and even safe to be reappointed, by incompetent elders??
Have I missed something? (Not the first time I'm sure)..
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"We don't run a spy network"
by OrphanCrow inthe wts has been keeping case files on child sex abuse for over 60 years that we know of.
*damn...my whole post disappeared.... .
the wts has been keeping case files on child sex abuse for over 60 years that we know of.
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defender of truth
For any lurkers..
For Jose Lopez, it took almost three decades to find some semblance of justice after he’d been molested – when he was 7 – by a predator who’d operated within a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in San Diego.
When his case against the Witnesses concluded in October, a judge awarded Lopez $13.5 million, a remarkably large sum in an era of frequent payouts in abuse cases.
The decision rested in part on the Witnesses’ refusal to hand over documents in the case, prompting the frustrated judge to ban the organization from making a defense.
The Lopez case was remarkable for another reason.
It forced the Witnesses into a rare admission:
Somewhere within the organization, there is a trove of documents with the names and whereabouts of known child sexual abusers in its U.S. congregations.
During the trial, a senior official from the Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters, Richard Ashe, told Lopez’s attorney, Irwin Zalkin, that the organization had collected and electronically scanned internal documents on decades of known abuse cases. Ashe said that the Witnesses keep their child sexual abuse reports in a Microsoft SharePoint database but that it would take years to extract the information because it was mixed up with millions of other documents.
“Honestly, Mr. Zalkin, the efforts that we’ve made up to this point is just trying to figure out how on earth we could ever do that in our filing system,” Ashe said. “You’re talking about 14,000 congregations and over 3 million documents that have been scanned and that would have to be searched. … It would take years to do that.”
Zalkin called in a software expert who testified that by using simple search terms, the Witnesses could produce the information in less than two months, or maybe two days. At that point, the Watchtower simply refused to provide the database.
www.revealnews.org/article/jehovahs-witnesses-use-1st-amendment-to-hide-child-sex-abuse-claims/
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i feel more confused than ever
by BlackWolf inwell i know i've been posting a lot of topics like this lately and i'm sorry if i sound whiny or annoying.
my parents were asking me why i was so upset lately and i ended up just telling them the whole truth.
i told them i don't believe in god or the bible because i don't have any evidence of anything.
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defender of truth
Sorry, I'll try again..
BlackWolf:
Do you personally believe in Armageddon? You said that you don't believe in the Bible God anyway (and quite rightly considering there is zero evidence of that specific beings' existence) , so logically..
You are no more likely to die at 'Armageddon' than you are from being struck by a lightning bolt from Zeus!!
The Watchtower tries to reduce intelligent adults to the mental state of a small child, afraid of a bogey monster they have only read about in a story book.. Don't let them do that to you.
If your parents want to live in fear of the bogey man, leave them to it. Don't cause confrontation.
Just be sure of what you believe personally, and keep the peace, as others have said.
There's no need to gamble your life away on a false hope..
www.thewatchtowerfiles.com/jehovahs-witnesses-and-fear/
JW's are just another wacky group of people who think they are on the doorstep of a new world (after that whole inconvenient business of nearly 8 billion people being 'wiped from the face of the earth').
If you ever start to wonder if they may have got it right, just remember that Zeus isn't going to get you.. And neither is the big Jayhoover.
Besides, as prophets go, these guys don't have the best success rate..
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i feel more confused than ever
by BlackWolf inwell i know i've been posting a lot of topics like this lately and i'm sorry if i sound whiny or annoying.
my parents were asking me why i was so upset lately and i ended up just telling them the whole truth.
i told them i don't believe in god or the bible because i don't have any evidence of anything.
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defender of truth
BlackWolf:
I could live my whole life being a jw even though I hate it and possibly live forever or I could live my life doing what I love and possibly be killed at armageddon.
Do you personally believe in Armageddon? You said that you don't believe in the Bible God anyway (and quite rightly considering there is zero evidence of that specific beings' existence) , so logically..
You are no more likely to die at 'Armageddon' than you are from being struck by a lightning bolt from Zeus!!
The Watchtower tries to reduce intelligent adults to the mental state of a small child, afraid of a bogey monster they have only read about in a story book.. Don't let them do that to you.
If your parents want to live in fear of the bogey man, leave them to it. Don't cause confrontation.
Just be sure of what you believe personally, and keep the peace, as others have said.
There's no need to gamble your life away on a false hope..
To live your entire life around a future event that may or may not come in your lifetime is tragic.
We all know that we’re going to die. We non JW’s accept that eventuality because it happens to everyone eventually.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, however, have found an artificial way to hope against hope that their lives will be spared death and that they will be able to live right on into paradise if Armageddon will only come in their lifetime.
This is the “hook” that the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society uses to recruit their followers.
They have found the one thing that scares everyone to death (excuse the pun) and they propose an artificial solution to it. They imply either directly or indirectly, that the odds are high that anyone who follows them will be spared this eventuality. They do this by focusing on world events that seem to imply that we are living in the end times. They focus on earthquakes, disasters, weather changes, political changes, wars, reports of wars, etc. These somehow give them license to state that we are living in the “end times”.
How long have they been preaching this? Since 1874!
They have prophesied many times about specific dates only to be proven wrong. They admit this. Yet they continue to beat the same drum they started beating way back in 1874.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, when recruited, are eaten up with this belief that the end is coming and that it is “just around the corner”.
Ask any Jehovah’s Witness if they feel that the end is coming soon and they will all tell you “Yes!” If you had a time machine and went back a hundred years you’d get the very same answer!
The problem this creates is that they end up living for some future event instead of living in the present moment. Their lives are put on hold.
All of the wonderful things that life has to offer are willingly surrendered and for what?
For some possible event that may or may not happen for them.
Excuse me for saying so but it sounds a lot like gambling to me.
“Okay, I’ll give up all the things that make life worth living:...
marriage [or freedom to marry whoever you choose instead of whoever's in your congregation], a good education, a fulfilling career, and a comfortable retirement all for the hope that if I work hard enough for The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, I’ll be able to survive Armageddon into this “paradise” that you say is waiting for me on the other side.”
JW's are just another wacky group of people who think they are on the doorstep of a new world (after that whole inconvenient business of nearly 8 billion people being 'wiped from the face of the earth').
If you ever start to wonder if they may have got it right, just remember that Zeus isn't going to get you.. And neither is the big Jayhoover.
Besides, as prophets go, these guys don't have the best success rate.. ;)
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Fascinating interview with Dr.Monica Applewhite (think about how JW organisation compares)..
by defender of truth intitle: change in vatican culture.
monica applewhite is one of the foremost experts on screening, monitoring and policy development for the prevention of sexual abuse and risk management for those with histories of sexual offending.. ----------.
is there much of a difference for how these cases are handled by religious institutes vs. dioceses?.
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Fascinating interview with Dr.Monica Applewhite (think about how JW organisation compares)..
by defender of truth intitle: change in vatican culture.
monica applewhite is one of the foremost experts on screening, monitoring and policy development for the prevention of sexual abuse and risk management for those with histories of sexual offending.. ----------.
is there much of a difference for how these cases are handled by religious institutes vs. dioceses?.
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defender of truth
Title: Change in Vatican culture
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Monica Applewhite is one of the foremost experts on screening, monitoring and policy development for the prevention of sexual abuse and risk management for those with histories of sexual offending.
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Is there much of a difference for how these cases are handled by religious institutes vs. dioceses?
"Yes and no. Both the dioceses and the religious have committed themselves to reporting abuse to the civil authorities, to responding pastorally to victims and to investigating all abuse allegations.
In these cases, the dioceses are meant to follow the charter, and the religious are to follow the accreditation standards. Religious are also required to follow the charter with respect to prohibiting all public ministry, but this requirement is also in the accreditation standards.
The primary distinction is probably in terms of what happens to the individual priest or religious who is found to have sexually abused a minor. The charter clearly states that clerics who have sexually offended a minor or minors cannot be in any form of public ministry, but the document does not address standards for their supervision if they remain in the priesthood.
Religious accreditation actually has specific standards to address the requirements for supervision, support and accountability system for these men. "
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In the Church’s handling of this issue, can you tell me what the Church has done right?
"The Church in the U.S. is the first large-scale organization to take two important steps toward healing and prevention of future incidents of abuse.
We are the first to conduct a full prevalence study to determine how many incidents, how many victims and how many perpetrators of abuse there were from 1950 to 2002.
The John Jay College [of Criminal Justice] conducted this comprehensive research, and it is published on the USCCB website. Anyone who truly wants to know “the problem” we are facing should review the findings.
Secondly, the Roman Church is the first institution of its size to implement a full program of accountability to ensure the implementation of its reform efforts. Again, an outside team, the Gavin Group, has conducted the audits of the dioceses.
Large-scale organizational change, deep cultural change simply does not happen without accountability."
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Is there much of a difference between what happens when a priest is accused today and what happened prior to 2002 (when the charter and norms were adopted)?
"In most situations, no.
The reforms of the Church began long before 2002. As laws changed, as understanding of sexual abuse and sexual offenders developed, so did the procedures of the Church in most local dioceses and communities.
It was 1992 when the bishops first began following the “Five Principles,” which included pastoral outreach to victims, investigations and open communication with communities.
Published in 1992, the bishops’ five principles were:
1) respond promptly to all allegations of abuse,
2) relieve the alleged offender promptly of his ministerial duties and refer him for appropriate medical evaluation and intervention,
3) comply with the obligations of civil law as regards reporting of the incident,
4) reach out to the victims and their families, and
5) deal as openly as possible with the members of the community.
What changed in 2002 was a dramatic improvement in uniformity, both within and across dioceses and religious communities. The toughest situations have always been when the allegation is against an extremely talented and charismatic priest, religious or lay minister. These are the situations in any organization that are the most divisive, the most difficult and the most likely to be handled improperly.
When the allegation seems impossible, in the absence of accountability, there is often a temptation to hope the situation will just “go away.”
In 2002, listening to stories of victims who were abused by just this type of offender, the bishops and religious superiors made commitments that would end “the exceptions.”
These commitments and the associated accountability also addressed the fact that some leaders had simply elected not to follow the guidance of the five principles, and that also brought greater uniformity to the handling of allegations. "
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"Since 2001, the system has become much more uniform. There is a “form” of how to write up the case so that all allegations and the outcomes of investigations are clearly documented. Many trials are held locally, and the process is much faster.
Even more importantly, the CDF gives support and credibility to bishops and superiors who are involved in disciplinary procedures, from removal from ministry to laicization.
I still believe the rights of priests and religious are respected and upheld, but there is a greater attention to the needs of the community to be safe from harm."
[These are just quotes, read full interview here, from 2010 but interesting nonetheless..]